bugtraq - Re: Mac OS X stores login/Keychain/FileVault passwords on disk

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Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 10:23:51 +0100
From: James Goodlet <J.S.Goodlet@...sex.ac.uk>
To: Kurt Seifried <bt@...fried.org>, bugtraq@...urityfocus.com
Subject: Re: Mac OS X stores login/Keychain/FileVault passwords on disk

On 17/7/04 5:17 am -0700, Kurt Seifried wrote:

> To quote myself:
>
> http://www.seifried.org/lasg/system/index.html
>
> Unfortunately if you are using Apple hardware you cannot secure the boot
> process in any meaningful manner. While booting if the user holds down the
> command-option-P-R keys it will wipe any settings that exist, there is no
> way to avoid this.

Err, have you actually tried that?  See

  <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106482>

and note the section which states that one of the effects of turning on 
"Open Firmware Password Protection" is that it "Blocks a reset of Parameter 
RAM (PRAM) by pressing the Command-Option-P-R key combination during 
startup".  This has certainly been my experience here.

Your point on physical security though is well made, and it is trivial to 
defeat most BIOS controls if you have physical access to the device.

James
-- 
James Goodlet, Head of Infrastructure Services,
IT Services, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QJ
GPG: E214 6C8F 785F 95CC 33E3  A72E A6FE D13D 055A B934